Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles has proposed legislation that would amend the Constitution, allowing Donald Trump to run for a third presidential term.
“I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment on presidential terms,” Ogles said in a statement. “This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.”
Ogles also argued that the administration of President Joe Biden had left America in “decay,” echoing the false narrative offered by Trump and other Republicans. Nonpartisan data shows that under Biden the unemployment rate fell, crime decreased, and factory openings and infrastructure spending has significantly increased.
Ogles’ amendment includes the following wording: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms.”
The change would upend the current law as laid out in the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidential terms to two. The only president in U.S. history to be elected to more than two terms was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat who notably spent the bulk of his presidency in a fight against global fascism and building the social safety net—while Trump has embraced fascists and seeks to cut the net.
But what is particularly notable is that the Ogles change includes a limit of two consecutive terms.
There are four former presidents that are alive, in addition to Trump. Of those men, only two would be eligible for another shot at the presidency if Ogles had his way—Trump and Biden. The law would conveniently prohibit Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush from running again because they all served two consecutive terms.
Would Biden want another four years? Bill Clinton wouldn’t be eligible under the proposed legislation even if he wanted to.
Conveniently Trump’s two-term Democratic predecessors all have electoral records significantly dwarfing Trump’s track record. Trump won the 2024 race with a popular vote margin of 1.5% and that is the only of the three times he has run for president that he received a popular vote majority or plurality (he lost the popular vote to former Sec. Hillary Clinton in 2016).
By contrast, Obama has the second largest popular vote margin of all the living presidents thanks to his 7.27% victory in 2008 against the late Sen. John McCain. Obama’s reelection win also comes out well ahead of Trump, after he won by 3.86% in 2012 in his defeat of former Sen. Mitt Romney.
Clinton, who is actually two months younger than Trump, also has a much better electoral track record. Clinton won by 5.56% in 1992 and by 8.51% in 1996—the biggest margin of the living presidents.
Even his fellow Republican Bush, who like Trump also lost the popular vote before his first presidency, outperformed Trump.
A constitutional amendment doesn’t just need approval from Congress, but also has to be ratified by 38 of the 50 states. Historically this has been a careful and deliberate process and extremely rare. The last amendment to be added is the 27th amendment, which became law in 1992.
Ogles’ proposal is the work of a Trump supporter attempting to extend his presidency in an impractical way. The congressman has been criticized in the comments of his Instagram account for pushing for the unlikely legislation just a day after a school shooting in his district, arguably a more pressing concern.
But then again, how else could he show his devotion to the MAGA cause?
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